Pelagic
by TheMistyLion
Summary: Every living thing has an aura, but only a select few humans can wield it. Some use it for good, and others, to commit unspeakable acts. Pelagic Labs is a floating laboratory on the Pacific coast, experimenting on the aura of the sea. Kokone and Fukase are about to start their internships at the Lab, and discover that all is not how it seems. Prologue only, DISCONTINUED.


**Pelagic Labs, Five Years Ago**

The sentry looked at her lazily through deep-set eyes as she approached. He shifted his meager weight toward the door he was guarding as Miki stopped directly in front of him and waited for him to speak first. The sentry had the same idea, but spoke when it became apparent this newcomer was adamant on waiting.

"Who are you?" he asked, his words laced with a self-confident boredom.

"I'm a technician from Aquaton," she stated, looking him straight in the eye. "Here to inspect the drainers."

"I wasn't informed you would be coming today. Or that you were so young…" She was what, sixteen? No older than that, certainly. Usually the only technicians allowed entry were the more experienced ones.

"I skipped years in training," Miki said, lifting her chin.

The sentry yawned. He felt like a weight had dropped onto his back. Not at all strangely, he didn't connect his sudden tiredness to the young woman in front of him. Or what he was guarding, oh no.

"Do you have any clearance or ID?" he intoned. Or even tools, you know?

"Oh, excuse me. Of course." Miki made a show of taking off her gloves, shaking back her long red hair and undoing a single button on her coat to reach an inside pocket. By the time she pulled out her empty hand, the sentry slept on his feet. She stuffed her gloves into her pockets, and slipped around his snoozing body to wave her hand in front of the aura sensor. It unlocked the door with a satisfying click. Good thing she'd kept Viscount 's aura traces for so long.

Before reaching for the doorknob, she snapped her fingers in front of the guard's face, then next to his ear. He didn't stir. She smirked and stole into the room.

If one disregarded the fact it was a prison, and the obvious lack of windows no one even bothered to hide, the room might've been mistaken for a tiny hotel suite. And the place curiously reeked of licorice.

Piko Utatane was still short. At the very least, an entire foot shorter than Miki. His thin hair was blond to white, the complete opposite of Miki's bright tresses. He stood with his back pressed to the wall near the door, hands in little kid fists. He jumped when they met eyes.

Miki didn't waste time with reunion chatter and grabbed his bony arm.

"We're leaving. Now. Remember your part of the deal? We're lifting at the East Bay, do you understand?"

He nodded slowly. Her hand shifted down to his and she crushed his fingers. "Squeeze my hand like this if there's someone coming."

He nodded again. The moment they exited the room, he gripped her hand and looked to the right. Well, that certainly explained the lack of guards. Three more were walking toward them, eyes widening as they took in the sleep-standing man and the teen leading the prisoner out of its chamber.

"Run!" Miki broke into a sprint, dragging Piko behind her. She didn't have to look back to hear the surprised shouts and heavy boots tromping after them.

"Don't let them escape!"

They skidded around a corner. She ran faster and faster, heart pumping overtime. Her fingernails dug into Piko's hand as he tried to keep pace. A light, free emotion swelled in her chest. Her aura readied to burst.

Ahead, a couple of Keepers were pointing and yelling in their direction. One pounded a aura sensor on the wall, and a lockdown gate dropped from the ceiling.

Miki didn't slow. She threw out her hand and a yellowish haze erupted from her fingertips. She almost laughed out loud. Her aura formed into a radiant, spectral hand, nearing the size of a door.

She grinned. Simple contact with a power-charger like Piko for less than a minute was bringing out her dormant power faster and more efficiently than years of meditating. She couldn't feel a twitch of strain from her third hand as it swatted the Keepers aside like flies, forced the heavy gate open, and after they passed, slammed it down on the pursuing guards.

She relaxed for exactly a second, drawing back her aura, until Piko clenched her hand again.

Three more Keepers skirted a bend ahead. Miki didn't have to think to thrust out her third hand. It knocked the Keepers off their feet and smashed them into the ground before they could even identify what was flying towards them.

Passing by wasn't as easy this time. One of the Keeper's arms shot out and tripped Piko. Miki reacted quickly, planting one foot, pivoting and pulling hard. Piko's hand slipped in her grasp as they both stumbled unbearably close to collapsing. Miki's third hand knocked the offending Keeper around the head as they ran off, considerably slowed.

Miki went through the halls in her mind's eye. One more left until the East Bay doors would be in sight. The rounded the turn, their shoes squeaking on the tile-

Only to come to a stop.

At least twenty guards and Keepers stood ready between the fugitives and the doors.

Miki couldn't help a nasty grin splitting her face, like some terrible blooming flower. Leaving a couple of bodies behind sounded like a great way to leave this godforsaken place.

She summoned her third hand, curling it into a fist.

Then Piko let go.

"What?"

Her hand dimmed to barely a shadow. That aura-free feeling disappeared. After seeing for the first time in a thousand years, she had been dumped into the dark for the second time. By no one other than Piko Utatane.

She was so utterly and completely taken aback, so suddenly cold, she didn't reach for Piko's hand. She only stared at him with an open mouth as the Keepers swarmed forward.

Then she started to scream. Rage flushed her face and her white-knuckled fists swung out. The Keepers seized her, holding her back. She shrieked her hatred and spat at him. Called him a traitor and a fraud, and hoped he'd go to Hell. He remained silent.

It wasn't long before she slumped, her adrenaline spent, as they dragged her away.

"I trusted it… I trusted that _thing_ …"

Piko watched her go, then bowed his head to check. There was blood on his hands.


End file.
